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Friday, November 27, 2015

Although mechanical ventilation is used to sustain life of severely ill patients who are unable to breathe on their own, it does not always do so without side-effects. A common risk associated with mechanical ventilation is the development of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI), which can worsen the already impaired patient’s condition.

A proven strategy for treating and preventing VILI is to use variable ventilation over conventional mechanical ventilation, which is based on the delivery of a fixed volume of air at a set frequency. Under this approach, breath-by-breath tidal volume and breathing frequency variations are applied while minute ventilation is kept constant. The objective of variable ventilation profiles is to prevent a repeated over inflation and over distension of the severely ill patient’s limited open lung areas, which is believed to be associated with the development of VILI. Variable ventilation has been shown to improve respiratory mechanics by increasing compliance and to ameliorate alveolar gas exchange.(1, 2)

Being a highly programmable computer-controlled piston ventilator, the flexiVent is the ideal tool for preclinical studies intended to employ variable ventilation or study its effects. Breath-by-breath changes in any ventilation settings can seamlessly be applied through a script automation created in the flexiWare operating software. In addition, detailed measurements of respiratory mechanics can easily be combined with any ventilation profile applied without extra effort or the need to move the subject to a different device.

Ventilation parameters that can be modified on breath-by-breath basis through scripting:

Respiratory rate

Tidal volume

Inspiratory/Expiratory ratio

Positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP)

Maximum pressure

Please contact us to find out how you can apply variable ventilation to your research.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Our team is now back in the office after the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions last week in Orlando. It was a wonderful forum to meet with existing customers and researchers interested in techniques to assess both cardiovascular and respiratory measurements in a preclinical setting.

Didn't attend the conference? Contact us to learn more about our range of products for life science research.